A Moment in Time
by LaraIsWrite
Summary: Who is the wizard in the Leaky Cauldron that was reading Stephen Hawking's book and stirring his drink without wand or words!


**So my nerd-net-surfing has led me to a lot of people commenting on the wizard (from the first movie) in the Leaky Cauldron that was reading that book by Stephen Hawking and using wandless/wordless magic to stir his drink. I was struck by inspiration to write a little blip on who ****_I_**** think he is. Hehe. I mean, its pretty obvious to me... =] Hope you enjoy!**

**~Lara~**

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'Another quiet day at the Leaky Cauldron,' a dark haired wizard mused, already tiring of the place. The small grubby looking pub which served as a gateway between muggle London and the wizarding thoroughfare of Diagon Alley was quite well-known amongst wizards and witches but even still it always seemed to be in a dark and shabby state. Its medieval atmosphere reminded him of his own roots, serving as both a place of solace and gloom. Tom, the bald, toothless bartender came over to the table he sat at and placed his usual morning fair in front of him: a plate of sausage with gravy and biscuits and a mug of hot, black coffee. He thanked the man graciously as the tantalizing aroma began to wake his senses.

"Think you'll find what you're lookin' for today, Mr Myrddin?"

The man sighed, scratching at his dark stubble thoughtfully. "I can only hope." Inwardly he added frustratedly, 'Sadly it was only a vague feeling that brought me here. I'm not even sure what it is I'm supposed to be keeping an eye out for.'

The old man gave his guest an encouraging smile. "I'll keep my fingers crossed for you." He glanced down at the book lying on the table and squinted to read the words. "A brief history of... time..." His brow arched skeptically at this and he gave the young man a quizzical look. "Big bangs and black holes? Isn't that muggle stuff?"

Myrddin shook his head. "Its science, Tom. You would be surprised at the connections between the muggles' science and our magic. In fact, I'm quite sure if they mastered their sciences they would be as capable of 'magic' as we are."

The old bartender gave his head a shake and a short chuckle. "If you say so, young sir!" With that he went back to his bar where he set about wiping glasses and mugs clean.

A small smile crossed the dark haired wizard's features. Not many of the magical lot liked to know that they shared much in common with the muggle folk, even the ones that didn't look down on them. He opened his book and picked up reading from where he had left off the previous day while absently eating his breakfast and drinking his coffee. It was still quite early, so the pub was quite empty. However, over the next few hours, it slowly began to come to life. A short, rotund man in a top hat skipped in and went straight to the bar. He stayed there, drinking his ale and conversing quietly with Tom. A group of old women came in noisily from Diagon Alley and sat in the far corner where they ordered sherries and continued chatting amongst themselves. Myrddin noticed one of the hags had lit up a pipe and was blowing thick clouds of smoke that hung about them. Several others meandered in, every one of them minding their own business. Tom had come over and cleared his dishes when he saw the wizard had finished with his meal. The bartender also brought him a fresh cup of coffee, this time bringing a small bowl of white sugar cubes at the man's request. Still quite absorbed in his reading, Myrddin twiddled his fingers above the bowl and three small cubes came floating out and dropped themselves into his steaming mug. A spoon followed behind the cubes and the wizard began twirling his index finger above the mug, causing the submerged spoon to stir the liquid inside.

At that moment, the door from Muggle London opened and a large man walked in followed by a small, messy haired boy with glasses. The low buzz of the customers' chatter stopped and everyone peered to see who had entered. "The usual, Hagrid?" Tom asked from his place behind the bar. The customers returned to their business, waving and smiling at Hagrid in a familiar manner. Clearly he was a regular here.

The huge man shook his head and replied, "Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business." He clapped his great hand on the small boy's shoulder, nearly knocking the kid into the floor. Myrddin chuckled at this, eyeing the boy curiously. There was something about him that was intriguing to the wizard. Myrddin felt there was a great destiny surrounding him. Was this boy the reason he had felt the need to come here?

"Good lord, is this..." Tom said, interrupting his thoughts. "Can this be..." The pub fell completely silent again as the barman's tone had attracted his patrons' attentions. "Bless my soul," he whispered in amazement. "Harry Potter... what an honor." He rushed out from behind his bar and seized the boy's hand eagerly. "Welcome back, Mr Potter, welcome back."

At the corner of his vision, Myrddin saw that the old hag in the back corner was now puffing on an unlit pipe distractedly. As if someone had just thrown a priceless object into the air for all to grab at, the Leaky Cauldron's patrons all rushed to their feet and surrounded the two excitedly. Each one of them shook the shocked boy's hands, some of them more than once, and introduced themselves eagerly. He stopped stirring his drink and set his book on the table in front of him. 'Is this boy the one we've been searching for all these years?' he wondered privately, rising to his feet. Slowly, nervously, he made his way to the edge of the crowd. Myrddin knew, of course, everything the rest of the wizarding world knew about Harry Potter. 'The boy who lived...' His mind worked furiously as he tried to figure out if this boy was the reincarnation of the once and future king- the dearest friend he had ever known. A gap formed as each person moved to get a different view of the infamous boy with the lightening bolt scar on his forehead.

"I've seen you before! You bowed to me once in a shop!" The man to which the boy now spoke got so worked up at this that his top hat fell right off and he ranted excitedly to everyone around.

Everyone being momentarily distracted by Dedalus Diggle's antics, Myrddin took this opportunity to cut in front of the boy and shook his hand firmly. His blue eyes peered deep into the boy's emerald green eyes. "Merlin..." he began to introduce himself, his mind reeling with the possibility that he had finally found his long lost friend. However, he quickly shook his head as he remembered he had stopped using his true name centuries ago. To cover up his mistake, he continued, "Merlin's beard, it's an honor to meet you. My name is Myrddin. Alaric Myrddin." In the next few seconds, the wizard quickly assessed the boy standing in front of him with a small bit of his magic. His heart fell as his probing concluded that this boy had a very different destiny from the one for whom the wizard was searching. He had felt such a great pull to this spot but now he knew it was only the magnitude of Harry's life path which had captured his mind's senses. Stepping aside to let the crowd return to fawning over the boy, Alaric Myrddin returned to his table and continued to watch the proceedings, the hole in heart wrenching as he felt again just how much he missed his dear friend Arthur.

As they crowd dissipated, and all that remained was a nervous, stuttering man, the door from Muggle London opened again and Alaric looked to see who it was. He smiled as he recognized his very old friend to whom he had sent word to meet up with here. The man seemed to notice him as well and he strode over with a huge grin on his face. "Leon, you old git, its good to see you again! You haven't changed a bit!"

The man sat across the round table from him and gestured to Tom to bring him an ale. "Merlin," he greeted, clasping his friend's hands earnestly. "That Cup of Life did me more favors than the Druids figured it would, I think. How have things been?"

The wizard winced as the old knight voiced his true name but made no complaint. "It has. Things have been uninteresting and uneventful. Any leads on whether our quarry is... findable yet?" The man shook his head, wavy red-brown hair falling into his brown eyes. They both sighed at this, disheartened at the thought of having to wait even longer for their king to return. Tom darted in to give Leon his drink and then left just as quickly to tend to the rest of his customers. There had been some dark goings-on lately in Britain. Leon took a long drink of ale as they pondered in silence for a moment. They had both expected to have discovered their quarry long before now, given that his land was in danger once again. In an attempt to lighten the mood, Merlin said cheerily, "I'll be honest, I was half expecting to see you all hunched over and wrinkled after all these years. How did you know it was me by the way?"

Leon chuckled at his old friend's comment then answered, "You always make your disguises with dark hair and you were smiling right at me."

The wizard's brows shot up in defiance. "Those aren't very good things to make deductions by! What if I had just been some random bugger that fancied you?"

His friend's brow raised roguishly. "Are you some random bugger that fancies me?" he inquired with a sly grin.

Merlin crinkled his nose. "No... thanks. But I'm not. I'm just saying... you need to be more careful. Its bad enough that your appearance never changes and you refuse to alter your name every few decades like any normal immortal would."

He rolled his eyes. "Do we have to do this everytime we meet up? Face it, Alaric, my look and name are timeless. Plus I'm not a powerful wizard like you. I don't possess the magic and knowledge that so many would apparently kill you to get. So lets skip the lecture and move on to the reason you summoned me here. I'm sure its not just because you missed me."

The dark haired man shook his head in fond exasperation. "To tell you the truth, I think I may have called you needlessly but tell me what you think anyway." He jerked his head towards the messy haired boy.

Leon looked obligingly. The boy was still speaking to the stuttering man. Their gazes met for a moment. He surveyed the boy closely, looking for any sign of the king he had been so proud to serve but he couldn't find any. When he shook his head finally, he asked, "Is it possible that we've already found him and didn't even realize it? I mean... what if there isn't going to be some telling physical feature like we've hoped?"

The wizard nodded his head, this thought having occurred to him more times than he could count. "I know... but other than prophecies and signs, we have nothing else to go on. I was hoping it would just sort of... I don't know, jump out at us. I mean, seriously, how many people in the world have ever been or could even pretend to be like Arthur Pendragon?" Both of the men laughed as they recalled their king's pride and vanity, his courage and sense of honor, his oafishness- they knew deep down that it wasn't going to be that easy but there was no sense in brooding over something they couldn't control.

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**To be continued...**

**I wasn't planning on this being an on-going story but the harder I tried to bring it to a close the more it fought against me. Haha. So, I'll be coming back to this as I get the inspiration and what not. May not be for a while though since I'm trying really hard to focus on my Lord of the Rings fic. But hey! As long as you're following this story, you'll be updated when I post new chapters. ;) Anywho, ta ta for now! =p**


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